4

NGT tells govt to act after 5-day smog
Seeks Report
On Measures
Taken So Far

HERE’S WHY BEIJING’S AIR HAS BECOME A LOT CLEANER THAN DELHI’S
Alerts

Health Impact

Description

Minimal
Impact

Neha.Lalchandani
@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: With the city experiencing smog for the fifth
day in a row, National Green
Tribunal on Wednesday morning directed the Delhi government to convene an emergency meeting and discuss
measures for immediate pollution abatement. It has also
asked the government to come out with a notification,
highlighting measures it has
already taken to control the
increase in pollution.
“What is the status of air
pollution? All you can say is
that there is no pollution... All
stakeholders who are dealing
with pollution indicate that
Delhi is highly polluted. The
levels of PM2.5 and PM10 are
beyond prescribed limits. We
cannot permit such a state of
affairs causing serious environmental pollution to prevail,” said the bench.
The four-member committee, comprising member secretaries of Delhi Pollution
Control Board and Central
Pollution Control Board, the
director health services and
the environment secretary,
met on Wednesday evening
and will carry on with the deliberations on Thursday as
well.
Ashwani Kumar, secreta-

CHINA HAS STRICTER NORMS AND A FOUR-LEVEL ALARM SYSTEM

INDIA HAS LAX STANDARDS AND NO ALERTS

May cause minor breathing
discomfort to sensitive people
May cause breathing discomfort
to the people with lung disease;
discomfort to people with heart
disease, children and elders
None

AQI

Good

0-50

Satisfactory

51-100

Moderate

101-200

May cause breathing discomfort
to people on prolonged exposure;
discomfort to people with heart
disease

Poor

201-300

May cause respiratory illness to
the people on prolonged exposure;
pronounced effect in people with
lung and heart diseases

Very Poor

301-400

May cause respiratory effects
on healthy people; serious health
impacts on people with
lung/heart diseases

401-500

Severe

AIR QUALITY INDEX

ry environment, said, “We
will look at specific geographical areas where pollution levels are worse and come up
with solutions. This means
that we will first have to identify such places based on our
own data, experience and the
report on air pollution that
IIT Kanpur has made for us.”
He said the report had found
the severest pollution in a
third of Delhi.
The IIT study has not been
released yet, but sources said
it has mapped Delhi based on
pollution levels. “The city has
been divided into grids and

352
359
98
90
239
Tomorrow 245

Delhi
Tomorrow
Pune
Tomorrow
Mumbai

Mayank.Manohar
@timesgroup.com

PM2.5
Very Poor
Very Poor
Good
Good
Poor
Poor

Source: SAFAR@MoES-IITM-IMD (10 stations)

Hyderabad
Chennai
Kolkata

36 Good
18 Good
323 Very Poor

US Embassy data calculated as per Indian
standards by SAFAR@MoES-IITM-IMD
Based on 1 Station Data Per City at 4pm

Mumbai trader
abducted in
Delhi released
after a month
Ahmed.Ali@timesgroup.com

Mumbai: A metal trader from
south Mumbai was lured to
Delhi with the promise of a
good deal, abducted by a gang
and held for nearly a month till
he could cough up a ransom of
Rs 10 lakh before being released unharmed.
Back in Mumbai, Hemant
Parikh, 50, filed a complaint
with the V P Road police on November 28, accusing Rahul
Jain and Sakip. Police have
registered a case of kidnapping, wrongful confinement,
assault and section of the
arms Act. Mumbai police commissioner Ahmad Javed has
transferred the case to the anti-extortion cell of the city
crime branch. Deputy commissioner of police Dhananjay Kulkarni confirmed the incident but refused to elaborate
saying the probe is at crucial
stage.
Sources in the force said
Parikh, who has a shop in Gulal Wadi at Bhuleshwar, found
an advertisement on an online
marketing portal that said the
advertiser, in a distress sale,
was offering tonnes of copper
at throwaway prices. When he
responded, Rahul Jain asked
him to come to Delhi for a
meeting. Parikh flew to the
capital in end-October. The accused took him in their car to
an undisclosed location, took
away his mobile phone, demanded a ransom of Rs 30 lakh
and confined him.
“They allegedly assaulted
and tortured him to force him
to pay up. Besides the two
names he has given, he said another four-five persons were
involved. Our investigation is
going in the right direction
and we hope to get some leads
soon,” said an official on condition of anonymity. Parikh
was released on November 26.

Description Health Impact

Alerts

Air quality satisfactory, and air
pollution poses little or no risk

0-50

Excellent

51-100

Good

For some pollutants there may be
a moderate health concern for a
small number of people

101-150

Slightly
Polluted

Sensitive groups may experience
health effects. General public not
likely to be affected

151-200

201-300

>300

Heart and respiratory system
Moderately of everyone may be affected;
serious health effects on sensitive
Polluted
groups
Heavily
Polluted

Patients with heart and lung
diseases severly affected; healthy
people are commonly affected

Severely
Polluted

Weaker endurance in activities
and signiﬁcant severe health
warnings among healthy; certain
diseases have early appearance

areas have been marked based
on locational variation in pollution load. This report will

No parking fee
at S Delhi malls,
pvt hospitals
POLLUTION
FRIGHT

AQI

New Delhi: The South Delhi
Municipal Corporation has
issued a public notice stating
that parking fee should not be
collected in the premises of
commercial
complexes,
malls and private hospitals.
The notice has come almost a
month after the proposal was
passed in the civic body’s
standing committee meeting.
The notice mentions that
the place earmarked for parking in commercial complexes, malls and private hospitals is free from floor area ratio (FAR) and no fee can be
charged from the public. “Under the provisions of Master
Plan 2021 and plans sanctioned by the corporation, the
area reserved for parking
cannot be put to commercial
use. The fee collection violates the corporation’s rules,”
said a South Corporation
official.
Standing
committee
chairman Radhey Shyam
Sharma said they are going to
issue notices to every complex to stop collecting parking charges. “We are going to
give them a choice. If they
want to continue charging
parking fee, then they will
have to get a trade licence
from the corporation for carrying out commercial activity. Strict action will be taken
against those complexes

which fail to follow the regulations,” he said.
While south Delhi residents have welcomed the civic body’s decision, a few still
think that if parking is made
free then everyone will station their vehicles at malls,
hospitals and commercial
complexes causing congestion issues. “Everyone will
start parking their vehicles at
malls and other complexes
unless the civic body deploys
enforcement staff to keep an
eye on it,” said Ajay Agarwal,
a resident of Green Park.
The civic body also states
that it is the responsibility of
the complex owners to ensure
that orders are followed and
monitoring is done. “We are
not going to monitor whether
the order is being complied
with or not. The private complexes should monitor their
premises and deploy guards,
if required,” Sharma said.
The condition outside
Max Super Speciality Hospital in Saket is pathetic as most
vehicles are parked on the
road despite parking fee being charged. Residents feel
jams and congestion will
worsen if charging parking
fee is stopped. Officials claim
that as they have just started
the procedure, it is too early to
comment on the consequences of the order. “We are going
step-by-step, the first being issuing notices to the complexes,” said a senior official.
Vipin

NEW PLAN: South Delhi residents have welcomed the move

form a basis for the recommendations by the committee
but there are other factors

that will be considered as
well,” said a source. “Real-time monitoring of air pollution is also being done—in six
locations by DPCC and another 10 by SAFAR. This will give an idea of some critical areas, although if it is felt that
some other places are vulnerable too, a quick sampling
from them can also be carried
out. The solutions will be source-based, though with air
pollution, any measure that is
taken to reduce it in one location will impact a much larger
area.”
The committee will list

Dumped by kin,
court comes to
woman’s rescue

areas according to priority
and then prepare an action
plan. Areas like Anand Vihar
and Civil Lines are likely to be
covered.
At 8pm on Wednesday, Anand Vihar, an area bordering
Delhi and Uttar Pradesh with
an inter-state bus terminus,
had PM10 levels of 940μg/m3
against a standard of 100, and
PM2.5 levels of 229μg/m3. A
residential area like RK Puram, which is seeing massive
construction activity at present, had PM 10 levels of
569μg/m3 and PM 2.5 levels of
257μg/m3.

New Delhi: A trial court has
come to the rescue of a disabled woman, who was allegedly moved to an old-age
home by her siblings, possibly because they wanted to
usurp her share in the family
property. The court on
Wednesday ordered the Delhi Commission for Women to
probe the matter.
Considering discrepancies in the statements of the
kin of the woman regarding
her condition and noting that
she was not capable of safeguarding her own rights, the
court also ordered the government to appoint a guardian for her.
The episode came to light
when the court was hearing a
property dispute suit filed by
the woman’s elder sister
against their brother, alleging that he was selling the
family property at Sarai Rohilla without giving her any
share. The court sought responses from all family members, including the woman,
in the case.
Initially, the family was
reluctant to even reveal her
whereabouts, forcing the
court to call in cops. Later, the
court found several contradictions in their statements.
While the elder sister said
their brother was responsible for the woman’s disability,
alleging that he had hit her

December 3
The court noted that the
possibility of the woman being “tutored” by her siblings
could not be ruled out. “It is
difficult for me to prima facie
draw any inference about her
mental state, but, certainly,
there is some disturbance requiring psychiatric intervention…Considering the circumstances that have now
emerged, I am convinced that
she is in a state of destitution
and her family... are not maintaining her and despite the
fact that she hardly appears
to be 40-50 years of age, she
has been admitted to an oldage home...” said additional
district judge Kamini Lau.

Anindya Chattopadhyay

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: A major portion
of the busy Feroz Shah Road
in Lutyen’s Delhi caved in on
Wednesday morning after a
part of a drain-water sewage
line running below it crumbled. While the civic bodies,
expectedly, blamed each other
for the mess, traffic police said
a part of the road had to be
barricaded leading to snarls
during peak hours.
New Delhi Municipal
Council chairman Naresh
Kumar said, “An old pipeline
run by CPWD was leaking and
caused the cave-in. They
(CPWD) are running an untreated water network. At present, the potable water network is under us and the one
for horticulture is with them,
which creates confusion. We
have received no complaints
on the water leak. Our civil department is working in collaboration with CPWD to fix the
road.”
The caved-in road, which
CPWD officials admitted
could have been triggered by a

CPWD officials admitted
that the road may have
caved in because of a
leaking pipeline under it.
A part of the road had to
be barricaded which
lead to snarls during
peak hours

A MESS: The crater at the Feroz Shah Road-KG Marg crossing is at least 10ft long, 5ft wide and 5ft deep

leaking pipeline passing under the road, was reported at
the Feroz Shah Road-KG Marg
crossing at 10am. The crater,
at least 10ft long, 5ft wide and

5ft deep, was barricaded immediately to avoid a mishap.
CPWD and NDMC officials were unable to identify
the leaking pipeline. The

stretch will remain closed until it is identified and repaired. Officials have ruled
out the possibility of another
cave-in nearby.

Paid licence dues: Le Meridien
Abhinav.Garg
@timesgroup.com

New Delhi: Hotel Le Meridien, which
is facing a CBI probe for allegedly defaulting on licence fees, has defended
itself before the Delhi high court.
In a mammoth counter affidavit filed in court on Wedesday, the hotel annexed key internal file notings of
NDMC to maintain the Rs 151crore paid
by it constitutes a full settlement of licence fee dues with the hotel till 2013-14
and that the civic agency has illegally
backed out from the agreement now.
It also points out that the figure of
Rs 151 was calculated and offered by
NDMC itself, with the hotel agreeing
only with a view to put an end to the decade-long case pending in the HC.
The dispute and subsequent attempts by then chairman Jalaj Srivastav to settle it figured prominently in
the unceremonious exit of the then
Union home secretary L C Goyal in September.
A disagreement over referring the
NDMC-Le Meridien deal to a wider
probe resulted in the government

COURT BATTLE

shunting out Goyal and his junior colleague A K Singh from MHA. On a complaint filed by former NDMC officer B
N Singh, the MHA had appointed a
three-member panel to examine the allegations that Srivastav and his junior
Himanshu Ranjan indulged in several
irregularities, including in the deal
with Le Meridien.
When the MHA panel found enough
merit in Singh’s complaint to recommend a probe by an independent agency, Goyal refused to give his nod while

the additional secretary pushed for the
case to be handed over to CBI. Eventually both senior IAS officers were removed but a CBI probe started.
CBI is investigating allegations
that NDMC suffered a loss of over Rs
400 crore due to its officials agreeing to
settle dues from the luxury hotel at Rs
150 crore.
Meanwhile, NDMC too approached
HC seeking to disown the previous settlement and raising a fresh demand. In
response, the hotel through its parent
company C J International has
claimed it owed even less than Rs 151
crore to NDMC.
“It was all along understood that
payments in term with calculation of
Rs 151 will form the basis of payments
to be made by the hotel towards future
licence fee,” the affidavit filed in HC
says, adding that “fresh demand of Rs
540 crore was made by NDMC for the
first time in 15 years without any foundation”.
The affidavit maintains that the
amount paid by it to NDMC forms the
entire amount due towards licence fee
arrears, including interest.

Photo courtesy: Devilz Tattooz

New Delhi: It’s going to be a wingding
for ink-slingers and tattoo lovers who
relish it as an art and a form of self-expression as the capital is all set to host a
first-of-its-kind tattoo convention. The
three-day event called Heartwork Tattoo Festival, to begin from December 4
at the IGI Stadium, seeks to clear the
myths, misconceptions and taboo
around inking and also highlight India’s centuries-old tattoo saga.
With body art workshops by international legends from the tattoo industry like Anil Gupta, Paul Booth and
Andy Shou, it is not only a platform for
upcoming tattoo artists to get an insight into international body art practices but a chance for those wanting to

WORLD
DISABILITY DAY

Road caves in, blame game starts

Delhi to ink a new chapter with tattoo fest
Dharvi.Vaid
@timesgroup.com

with a hot strainer, others
claimed that she had been
sexually abused several
times by her former employer and suffered a series of
abortions.
While other family members admitted that the woman was receiving treatment
at the Institute of Human Behavior and Allied Sciences,
they were not able to produce
any medical records, saying
these had been misplaced.
The elder sister, however,
claimed to have the records
and was asked to produce
them within two weeks.

sport a tattoo inked by these artists.
While Paul Booth is an American
tattoo artist known for working on the
musician Fred Durst, members of the
heavy metal band Slipknot, and WWE
wrestler, The Undertaker, Anil Gupta
is renowned for his realistic portraits
and expertise in celtic knot work with
intricate patterns and designs. Andy
Shou is a Chinese tattoo designer who
has also authored a boo k on Chinese
tattoo art.
Heartwork has been curated by Sameer Patange, a Mumbai-based celebrity tattoo artist popular in the industry for inking many from Bollywood,
Delhi-based Lokesh Verma, who is
country’s first award winning tattoo
artist, and Tattoo Empire and Tattoo
Gizmo, the distributors of tattoo
equipment in India.

BODY AS CANVAS

“Our larger aim with such a convention is to put India on the world
map of tattoos. I have worked in 17 different countries and have always want-

ed our country to have some sort of
standing in the field. This is also an attempt to educate people that tattooing
is not a taboo anymore, and that it is another form of art, in fact, the most dynamic one,” says Lokesh Verma.
Over 60 Indian and international
artists will showcase their work with
“live tattooing” ranging from traditional to new school. There will also be
atattoo design competition with multiple categories to compete in.
“With the event being conducted in
an open area, visitors will be able to
witness the methods of tattooing and
clear their doubts on safety and hygiene. This is not something alien to India. From different tribes in Arunachal Pradesh to communities in Rajasthan, each place in the country has its
own history of tattooing,” says Verma.

Traffic cops said the jam
had a cascading effect with vehicles coming from Shaheed
Jeet Singh Marg reducing to a
crawl, leading to additional
snarls at Aurobindo Marg.
The traffic volume on Feroz Shah Road is usually
heavy throughout the day as it
is one of the major connecting
roads and has a number of MP
bungalows throughout the
stretch. If one part of the carriageway is closed, it immediately results in a traffic jam as
the accumulation rate is high
on the stretch.
The ripple effect could be
seen as far as Mandi House in
the evening, said traffic police
officials.

Jamia still
divided over
Modi invite
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: A section of the
alumni of Jamia Millia Islamia
has now written to the university administration welcoming
its decision to invite Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deliver the convocation address.
The university community is
divided over the invite to Modi
for the convocation, the date for
which will depend on confirmation from the PM office.
The letter, addressed to the
Jamia vice-chancellor and signed as “from the alumni community”, said the invitation to
the PM for the 2015 convocation
was a step in the right direction
and that all former and current
students supported it. Signed
documents from the alumni have been enclosed with the letter,
which further said that all Jamia students and alumni were
waiting to welcome Modi.
A couple of days ago, a section of the alumni wrote to the
university to withdraw the invitation, alleging that Modi
and “his party has been constantly involved in spreading
rumours and hatred about Jamia Millia Islamia”.
Reacting to the letter, this
section of alumni urged the
university not to change its decision because of a small section of students.